Recycling High School Yearbooks
WILLIAM MCCOY
CLASS
Yearbooks provide a significant reminder of the past for many people, but if you have too many and are looking to downsize, recycling yearbooks is favorable to throwing them in the garbage. Recycling old yearbooks is about more than just placing them in a recycling box at your curb; be creative in your efforts to get rid of them.
1 Contact Friends
Before you get rid of the yearbooks, contact friends with whom you attended school and see if any of them are looking for an old yearbook from their school days. Over time, people can lose yearbooks, so a friend may relish the opportunity to get her hands on a yearbook from when she was in school.
2 School Library
Regardless of the age of the yearbooks, your school's library might be interested in receiving them. Contact your school by phone or email and explain the situation to a librarian. List the years of the yearbooks in your possession and ask if the library would benefit from having them. Most schools keep archives of the school's yearbooks, but the archives might be incomplete. If the school library isn't interested, contact community libraries, museums and local genealogical groups.
3 Scanning
Prior to getting rid of the yearbooks, scan the pages that you wish to remember with a desktop scanner. These pages could be class photos, group or sports team photos or the pages signed by your classmates. Through this process, you are able to keep select memories without the bulk of storing the books.
4 Recycling
If you can't find anyone interested in the yearbooks, recycle them by putting them in your recycling bin for pickup. If the yearbooks are entirely paper or cardboard, the recycling company can likely recycle them without issue. If you're not sure of what items are recyclable in your community, contact the recycling provider and explain the situation.
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